FAST BREAK … Evergreen’s Brooke Sintobin cruises in for two points on her way to nine points for the game as the Vikings beat Pettisville 47-34. (PHOTO BY JACOB KESSLER / THE VILLAGE REPORTER)
By: Joe Blystone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
METAMORA (December 15, 2023) – Evergreen didn’t really shoot the ball as well as they wanted, and at times didn’t take care of it as well as they would like.
What the Vikings did EXTREMELY well was defend Pettisville’s high scoring Olivia Miller, limiting her to just eight points, and holding the Blackbirds to just 13/43 shooting from the floor in a 47-34 victory.
Evergreen is now 3-2 on the season while the Blackbirds fell to 4-3.
“We watched a lot of film on them and broke down what the key components of them being successful,” Viking coach Brittaney Cymbolin explained after.
“Miller lit us up last year so I think that got under a couple of our players skin and we knew in order for us to be successful tonight we needed to get the ball out of her hands and give a lot of help side.”
“To (Pettisville coach) Jason’s (Waldvogel) credit he had his post players posting up non-stop so they could catch and do something with it.”
“We had to make sure we were countering and fronting the post at all times and I thought our kids did a really good job talking on defense and getting through screens and not only knowing where (Miller) was at but their posts as well.”
“We really geared ourselves up for this game. We knew Pettisville is a team that never gives up and after every quarter we kept saying ‘they aren’t going away”
“They are like that fly at the picnic; they don’t go away. We kept trying to reiterate that with the kids and I think that’s what pushed them through.”
The Blackbirds offset Brookelynn Gleckler’s early five points with Hollyn Klopfenstein’s 4/4 from the foul stripe and Amanda Grimm jumper to take an 8-5 lead.
Besides shadowing Miller much of the night along with Kyla Risner and Kennedy Emmitt, Brooke Sintobin sparked a 7-0 Viking run with a pick six score, two free throws, then another steal that led to Emmitt’s deep triple from the top of the key and a 12-8 Evergreen lead at the quarter.
Gleckler hit two three-balls but Grace Crawford answered with three hoops inside in the second quarter, the last of those three drew the Blackbirds even at 18-18 with 3:00 left before the Vikings spurted again.
Ella Burgermeister muscled in a putback, Emmitt found Risner for three and Sintobin, working hard on the glass, split a pair from the line for a 24-18 halftime lead.
Burgermeister and Sintobin were the spark in the third as Evergreen increased their lead to 15.
Burgermeister scored on an inbounds play, a triple, then a running bank after a turnover, and Sintobin had yet another pick six score and a stick back to more than counter Grimm’s nine points for a 19-10 scoring margin in the eight minutes favoring the Vikings to give them a 43-28 lead entering the fourth.
“Ella Burgermeister is one of my favorite kids in the world,” Cymbolin said of the junior forward. “She smiles all the time, and she will find ways to be successful.”
“We call her the sleepy kid because you think she isn’t involved and two seconds later she’ll make a great cut for an easy layup. She did great job of doing that tonight.”
Evergreen shot just 2-12 in the final stanza, including some ill-advised tries in the final minutes but again the Viking defense allowed nary an open look, harassing the Blackbirds into 2/10 for the quarter.
Burgermeister and Gleckler each had 11 to pace the Vikings while Grimm had the same number for Pettisville.
Evergreen was 17/56 from the field for 30 percent while committing 15 turnovers. The Vikings forced 18 Pettisville miscues and the Birds shot but 30 percent for the game.
PETTISVILLE (34) – Klopfenstein 7; Hastings 0; Bennett 0; Grimm 11; G. Remington 0; Fox 0; M. Remington 0; Miller 8; Crawford 8; Blosser 0; Weimken 0; Totals: 12-1-7 – 34
EVERGREEN (47) – Risner 5; Gleckler 11; Br. Sintobin 9; Huffman 0; Vaculik 2; K. Emmitt 9; Lumbrezer 0; Burgermeister 11; Be. Sintobin 0; Totals: 9-8-5 – 47
PETTISVILLE 8 10 10 6 – 34
EVERGREEN 12 12 19 4 – 47
JUNIOR VARSITY: Evergreen, 40-23
GAME STATISTICS
PETTISVILLE: FG – 13/43 (30%) ft – 7/10 (70%); Rebounds – 23; Turnovers 18; EVERGREEN: FG – 17/56 (30%); FT – 5/9 (55%); Rebounds 35; Turnovers – 15